Ok, I may be a bit late, but I just saw this film tonight. I thought it was ok, although it did kind of turn into a lightweight, entertaining gore film after being a disturbing, uncomfortable gore film for an hour. But I enjoyed the second half more than the first, so it didn't really bother me much.

It's too much like Craven's original for me to be overly impressed, but I'd say it's just as good a film, perhaps even improves upon some things. But I'm happy enough with the original, so I won't buy the remake.

I was kind of unimpressed with a lot of the direction. Some shots seemed rushed and uninspired. The majority of the film, though, looked pretty good. The final 30 minutes, for example, were terrific to look at. But a lot of the middle part was just boring, in my opinion, especially when you consider how terrific Haute Tension looked. Oh well, you can't have it all ...

At least it was better than Hostel

dmeister said:

I was never a huge fan of the original, and I even saw it at the drive-in when it first came out (there were several turn-offs for me, including the ambiguously gay son character ...)

Click to expand...

Hehe, that was actually one of the things I loved about the original and felt the remake needed badly. And personally I'd call the actor ambiguously gay rather than the character

This is likely off topic, but a friend of mine, a major Marvel Comics geek, swears up and down that they are the most persnickety fans on the web. Sometimes, posting here, I find that really, really hard to believe. They can't be worse than internet horror fans...can they?

This is likely off topic, but a friend of mine, a major Marvel Comics geek, swears up and down that they are the most persnickety fans on the web. Sometimes, posting here, I find that really, really hard to believe. They can't be worse than internet horror fans...can they?

Click to expand...

I can't help but wonder if you're referring to me I don't see why you would, but I'm so self-absorbed that I can't imagine there's anyone else you're talking about :glasses:

Just done watching the Unrated version for the second time and wow, I'm still impressed like I was on my first viewing I enjoyed every bit! Sure, Craven's HHE had that nasty 70s grindhouse feel thus the reason why I love the original so much but, I didn't mind Aja's stylish visions as well.
One thing that bothered me a bit: Bobby's pants. I mean, pull up yer trousers fer christ sakes.

He actually tripped over his pants running away from (I think it was) Papa Jupiter!

I saw this about a week ago after anticipating it for months. It's the only remake I have really anticapted because I liked High Tension a lot. This movie wasn't as good as High Tension or the original Hills Have Eyes, but it was pretty good. The film stayed pretty true to the original but not as much as the Psycho remake did. I really didn't care too much for the mutants themselves though. I liked the way they looked in the original better, although the original didn't have all the gore, so I guess it was a pretty good trade off when it comes to the effects between the original and the remake. Another minor complaint was the remake didn't spend too much time with the character development. I liked in the original we find out that the old gas station attendant is Papa Jupiter's father, but in this one there is nothing about that. Overall, I'd recomend it. It's not great, but as far as horror movies today goes (as well as remakes) it was pretty good.

the amount of what Doug went through and still kept going was way beyond the realm of possibility to the point of being rediculous. I know its a horror movie and everything....but c'mon; you walk through the desert with little water in your body after seeing your familiy masacred, get thrown through walls and windows, get the end of a bat to the head, get your fingers chopped off, get knocked out, get stuck in a freezer with rotting body parts, run through the desert some more with no water, get slashed by spikes, get your head bashed into the ground multiple times, then go on to the walk through the desert again carrying a baby and holding onto a dog's leash. Please. It was just too much.

Click to expand...

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Yep! I was like

"Dude just lost half a mitt and now he's swinging an axe like Paul Bunyan!"

so it ends with 'another' mutant watching them; are we to assume they are gonna be killed? So what? They're still in the middle of the desert with no water and one guy is half dead, its not like there was any indication they were gonna get out anyways for the 'oh no, they're still in troule!' ending to work...

Click to expand...

Yeah, that final shot really killed some positive buzz I had going there. That was needless at best, and

undermined the impact of what the survivors just went through.

Also, and I'm surprised nobody mentioned it in this thread actually, was the suspense-killing

homage to True Romance in the pivotal fight scene with Doug and Jupiter. As soon as Doug raised the ice pick(?) up, I was like "Damn, this is just like True Romance...I can't believe they are going to cheese-out like this and suck all the doubt out!"

And they did. Damn it. Still, for what it was advertised as, I enjoyed this glossier, more brutal trip into the Hills.

When I first watched The Hills Have Eyes (2006) it was the worst theatrical experience of my life. A meathead sitting right next to me kept taking phone calls throughout the film! I wrote the movie off as a decent remake for the time, but no great shakes. Rewatching it for the first time in 13 years, I think my viewing experience definitely led to me undervaluing it. So while I still prefer the original, I now feel the remake is one of the best of the 2000s remake wave and my favorite Alexandre Aja film.

Personally, I´ve never been a fan of the original. It's not a bad movie, but it just don't care for it.
But I really enjoyed the remake, and it still holds up.
The brutal revenge at the climax is so fucking satisfying

The remake is fucking awesome. I recently bought the arrow release of Craven's original film...... It's a classic for a reason but I truly enjoy the remake more. Definitely one of the more brutal flicks of the 2000s.

I wouldn't consider this one of the worst remakes of the '00s, but I might put it alongside The Omen as one of the least interesting. Aside from an added action sequence towards the end, it really just limply follows the original movie beat for beat, only with a shinny Hollywood gloss over it. Being familiar with the original movie before going to see it in the theater, I remember just sitting there and following along with it like "and here's where this happens, and then this happens, and then this happens, etc". At no point did the movie prove me wrong. I'd respect it more had they kept the characters and the setting, but at least done their own thing with it. This is a movie that was made specifically for people who hadn't seen the original and don't like "old movies". Which is fine, it's just not for me. A more effective and authentic version exists in Craven's film, so if I were to ever revisit Hills, that's always where I'll go.

Also have to add that I vastly prefer Craven's gut-punch of an ending to Aja's (or the studios?) eye-roller sequel tease.